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Large tracts of Syria and the whole of Palestine acknowledged the supremacy of his descendants, commonly known as Fatimites, from their supposed relationship to Ali, and to Fatima, the Prophet's daughter. They possessed also the sovereignty of the Holy Land; against them, therefore, the crusades of Europe were chiefly directed.
He was liberal and conciliatory toward different provinces, but to the Arabs of the capital he was severe. Kayrawan teemed with disaffected folk, sheiks, and theologians bitterly hostile to the heretical "orientalism" of the Fatimites, and always ready to excite a tumult. Moizz was resolved to give them no chance, and one of his repressive measures was the curfew.
The example of the Ommiades was imitated by the real or fictitious progeny of Ali, the Edrissites of Mauritania, and the more powerful Fatimites of Africa and Egypt.
Meanwhile the Caliphate of Cordova had reached the height of its power, while that of the Fatimites extended from the Nile to western Morocco, and the little Idrissite empire, pulverized under the weight of these expanding powers, became once more a dust of disintegrated tribes. It was only in the eleventh century that the dust again conglomerated.
To terminate the disturbances, the emirs resolved to seek the protection of the Fatimites. The latter, anxious to secure the long-coveted prize, gladly rendered assistance, and Husain was forced to return to Syria, where he took possession of Damascus, and the unfortunate Ahmed lost the throne of Egypt.
The men regarded him with profound gravity, and nodded their heads in approval, and requested him to proceed. Rejoicing at his success, he continued in a loud voice: "But the rule of the Ayoubites did not last long; it was even more brief than that of the Fatimites.
I should observe that the Turks were driven out of Jerusalem by the Fatimites of Egypt, two years before the Crusaders appeared. I am pleased to see that Mr. Sharon Turner takes the same view strongly. England in Middle Ages, i. 9. Also Mr.
The result was a severe repulse, and Hasan retreated, under cover of night, to Kulzum, leaving his camp and baggage to be plundered by the Fatimites, who were only balked of a sanguinary pursuit by the intervention of night. The Egyptian volunteers displayed unexpected valor in the fight, and many of the partisans of the late dynasty, who were with the enemy, were made prisoners.
Moizz was forthwith publicly cursed from the pulpit in the Syrian capital, to the qualified satisfaction of the inhabitants, who had to pay handsomely for the pleasure. Hasan next marched to Ramla, and thence, leaving the Fatimite army of eleven thousand men shut up in Jaffa, invaded Egypt. Tinnis declared against the Fatimites, and Hasan appeared at Heliopolis in October, 971.
And what is being taught to-day to the ten thousand students of El-Azhar scarcely differs from what was taught to their predecessors in the glorious reign of the Fatimites and which was then transcendent and even new: the Koran and all its commentaries; the subtleties of syntax and of pronunciation; jurisprudence; calligraphy, which still is dear to the heart of Orientals; versification; and, last of all, mathematics, of which the Arabs were the inventors.
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